Skill Drain Deck
A Skill Drain Deck uses the Trap Card Skill Drain to remove the negative effects from monsters like Goblin Elite Attack Force, Giant Orc, and Indomitable Fighter Lei Lei and use them for pure power purposes. Aside from the cards listed above, Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast is a much-played monster and Beast King Barbaros is a high valued monster with Skill Drain. They can be Normal Summoned without Tributes being offered since it has a provision for it in its effect, which in turn, cuts their ATKs. However, Skill Drain would remove the ATK limit, so you'd immediately have their original ATK. A great combo is to also include Beast Machine King Barbaros Ür with the above monsters to surprise your opponent with a high ATK monster. Monsters such as Zombyra the Dark which can be played without skill drain are perfect for skill drain decks for versatility. Cards like Chainsaw Insect, Big Shield Gardna, Majestic Mech - Ohka, Mist Archfiend, and cards with otherwise questionable advantages, suddenly become very playable with Skill Drain active. Giant Kozaky is perhaps the best to play with this deck, since it has 2500 ATK and 2400 DEF, and will not be destroyed by itself. Armor Exe can attack at the turn he was Summoned with Skill Drain, but due to its maintenance that's not negated by Skill Drain he shall only last one turn; so it's a nice addition, though is not as usable if Skill Drain is not available compared to other 4-Star monsters of their ATK. And of course, since Skill Drain will not negate effects that do not resolve on the field, Solemn Judgment and Divine Wrath are very worthy choices. A Cat of Ill Omen and Mask of Darkness may be necessary in order to draw into Skill Drain or to recover them. Berserk Dragon and Ultimate Obedient Fiend are also a great addition to this deck since they shall have an attack penalty and since this deck has many level 8 monsters that are easy to summon like Beast King Barbaros (tribute for Berserk Dragon), then, you have a great deck. Other cards to negate with Skill Drain are Yubel, Yubel - Terror Incarnate and Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare, since their first effects resolve on the field, and Skill Drain also takes care of Yubel's effect of growing into her other forms. You may consider including Final Attack Orders in the deck as well, as it will negate the effects of many of the cards you will use, such as Goblin Elite Attack Force and Giant Orc. With the release of Forbidden Chalice in the Raging Battle set, Skill Drain decks have seen a significant increase in power, as this card allows you to negate the effect of one monster, and increase its ATK by 400. An ideal use for this card in a Skill Drain deck would be to activate it on either Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast or Beast King Barbaros if Skill Drain is not on the field, effectively restoring their ATK back to its original amount and increasing it by a further 400. Skill Drain decks work well with cards such as Macro Cosmos, Dimensional Fissure and Necrovalley. Since many decks focus on Special Summoning quickly, Macro Cosmos and Necrovalley will shut down the Graveyard while effectively slowing the pace of the game to match the rate of Normal Summoning strong monsters. Solemn Judgment/Dark Bribe are very useful cards that not only forces opponents to waste cards such as Heavy Storm and Mystical Space Typhoon, it protects Skill Drain as well. To prevent common monster effects that activate in the graveyard, such as Mystic Tomato and Sangan, you may consider using or side decking Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror to prevent DARK monsters' effects and Light-Imprisoning Mirror to prevent LIGHT monsters' effects. Because it only negates effects that resolve on the field, Skill Drain Decks are free to use Cyber Dragon, Stardust Dragon, Exiled Force, any searcher monsters, and, to a lesser extent, Vampire Lord and Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. Weakness One deck type that can have an advantage over Skill Drain Decks is a Dark World Deck because they rely on sending cards in their hand to the Graveyard to activate their effects, which Skill Drain cannot stop. Another weakness to Skill Drain decks are decks that revolve around Synchro Summoning. Since you usually don't need monster effects to summon Stardust Dragon or Colossal Fighter (which are nearly unaffected by Skill Drain), Synchro decks pose a problem for Skill Drain decks and usually whenever Colossal Fighter is summoned, you usually cannot destroy it with any cards in your deck. Skill Drain decks are weak against swarming to an extent because they require high ATK beatsticks which are slower to Summon to maintain the advantage. Beware of destructive Spell and Trap cards such as Lightning Vortex, Mirror Force, Heavy Storm, and Mystical Space Typhoon. Without powerful monsters on the field or any Spells and Traps to back them up, Skill Drain decks become very vulnerable. Specific Types of Skill Drain "Default" Skill Drain This is the common Skill Drain deck, when the main purpose is cancel Beast King Barbaros and Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast's ATK-reducing effect, turning a non-Tributed monster into a real threat to opponent's Life Points. It can include even Beast Machine King Barbaros Ur, which can be easily Special Summoned removing both monsters - and you have a 3800 ATK beatstick which DOES damage. Also you can have a Giant Kozaky. When it is normal summoned (Without skill drain) it would be automatically destroyed unless you had a Kozaky on the field. Also you would take 2500 damage if it were to be destroyed by battle. With skill drain you can normal summon it and it would stay alive with 2500 ATK and 2400 DEF. However, since Giant Kozaky's damage-inflicting effect activates off of the field, like in the Graveyard or the removed zone, Skill Drain does not negate it, and the player who controlled him when he was destroyed will take 2500 damage. Big Shield Gardna negates targeting effects while face-down (unaffected by Skill Drain), and won't change to Attack Position after attacked. Usually, other monsters like Goblin Elite Attack Force, Indomitable Fighter Lei Lei and Giant Orc are there for increasing the strategy. Yet, monsters like Majestic Mech - Goryu and Behemoth the King of All Animals may be Summoned with 1 Tribute with no negativity. A great card to combo with Skill Drain, however, is Necrovalley. While SkD negates the Monster Effects on the field, Necrovalley negates the effects involving the Graveyard.. Archfiend Skill Drain This Deck uses the Archfiends as a main spot of this Deck's power, while Skill Drain neutralizes the opponent's effects, including the Archfiends, but they won't be affected way too much, allowing you to use only their ATK power. Pandemonium may be used to block the maintenance cost of the Archfiends, making this Deck easy to handle. Burden of the Mighty is a great trump for this Deck, since your opponent shall be neutralized in ATK power, making this Deck way tougher. Dark Skill Drain Unlike TeleDAD, this deck revolves around the cards Skill Drain, Mystic Tomato and Forbidden Chalice. Because most of the monster effects work in the Graveyard (such as those of Tomato, Destiny Hero - Malicious, and Plaguespreader Zombie), Skill Drain does not hurt the deck - it just hurts the opponent's deck. Cyber valley and machine duplication is a great choice along with destiny hero plasma. Zombie Skill Drain Zombie Skill Drain is a viable deck type because of the card Pyramid Turtle. The fact that it searches monsters based on DEF (with a high upper limit) means that it can search out powerful beatsticks such as Ryu Kokki, Malevolent Mech - Goku En, and Paladin of the Cursed Dragon, which other decks simply cannot do. With the recent semi-limitation of Mezuki (which is also unaffected by Skill Drain) this kind of deck is even more a viable option. Plant Skill Drain Though not as common an option as other types of Skill Drain, Plants have two large assets that still work with Skill Drain. The first is Lonefire Blossom, which will work under Skill Drain's influence if it tributes itself. The other is Tytannial, Princess of Camellias, which also works under Skill Drain's influence if it tributes itself, and has the advantage of having high ATK and the ability to be special summoned with Lonefire. Also of note is Mystic Tomato, Lord Poison, Dandylion, and Violet Witch which all also have an effect that activates off-field. Light Skill Drain Since the effect of Honest is not affected by Skill Drain, a good and solid version of this deck could be built around LIGHT Monsters. Thunder King Rai-Oh is a good choice, since it negates a Special Summon and it's a target to Honest. Some versions include Elemental Hero Neos Alius and Elemental Hero Stratos; the last one should be Summoned before activating Skill Drain in order to generate Card advantage. This version always mounts three copies of Beast King Barbaros and should not be confused with "Little City" (described below), since this deck is not Elemental Heroes-oriented. Little City Main article: Little City Deck Little City uses Skill Drain in combination with Skyscraper, which can boost the ATK scores of attacking Elemental Heroes. This is combined with powerful, level 4 heroes such as Elemental Hero Captain Gold, Elemental Hero Neos Alius, and Elemental Hero Stratos. Honest is also often used in this deck. Necrofear Skill Drain This deck focuses on getting fiends in the graveyard to remove from play to special summon Dark Necrofear. Many of the monsters used in this deck have effects that activate in the graveyard such as Giant Germ, Newdoria, and Slate Warrior, so Skill Drain can be very effective & deadly choice for this deck. Spirit Skill Drain This deck uses the effect of Yamato-no-Kami and Izanagi to swarm the field, along with Susa Soldier, who also have a great ATK. It can also use Beast King Barbaros as an optional support. The only weakness is that you can't use the drawing effect of Yamata Dragon, or the hand destructive effect of Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi. Toon Skill Drain This deck focuses on using Class A Toon Monsters to swarm the field. Class A Toons are Toon Mermaid, Toon Summoned Skull, Manga Ryu-Ran, and Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon. Class B Toon Toon Dark Magician Girl is also possible for this deck. Out of the Class C Toons, only Toon Goblin Attack Force would be useful. The idea of this deck uses the Hand ability of Class A and Class B Toons, they can be Special Summoned while Toon World is on the field. Toon Summoned Skull and Toon Dark Magician Girl would still require one tribute to Special Summon. Manga Ryu-Ran and Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon would still require two - these can be fulfilled by Special Summoning Toon Mermaid for free. With Skill Drain active, the Class A and Class C toons can attack on the turn they were summoned. Class A and Class B toons would not have to pay 500 Life Points to attack. The best part of this would be the effect all three Classes have, the monsters will not be destroyed if Toon World is. The Class A and B toons can still attack directly if their abilities are not negated later even with Toon World removed from the field. Macro Skill Drain This deck revolves around Skill Drain and Macro Cosmos / Dimensional Fissure. This differs with the normal Skill Drain deck by focusing more on field control. The main strategy is keeping your opponent's field empty while you normal summon a powerful monster and deal some battle damage each turn. Macro Cosmos and or Dimensional Fissure paired with D.D. Survivor are used to keep the field presence, while Skill Drain and Beast King Barbaros are used for both beatdown and field control. The monsters lineup are non-tribute monsters with high attack points, that (preferably) gets around both Skill Drain and Macro Cosmos. Good monsters to consider is Majestic Mech - Ohka. It can be summoned without tribute and stay on the field when Skill Drain is on the field, or it can be tribute summoned with D.D. Survivor when Macro Cosmos is face up for a free tribute (D.D. Survivor will come back to the field in the end phase). Other good monster to consider is Thunder King Rai-Oh. It is a powerful 1900 beater, and it gives an addition field control at some condition. When there is no Skill Drain yet, it prevents searching, and it can be tributed for negating a Special Summon even when there is a Skill Drain on the field due to sending it to the Graveyard being a cost. It can also be used while Macro Cosmos is active for the same reason. An essential support for this deck is Burden of the Mighty, as it neutralizes the enemy's ATK power. It also solves problem with many powerhouses, dragging the ATK of Monarchs down to 1800, Stardust Dragon to 1700, makes most of the monsters in this deck superior in ATK power. Although it alone cant be used for another powerhouses like Goyo Guardian (down to 2200), Judgement Dragon (down to 2200). One for one removal cards are good in this deck: Exiled Force, Dimensional Fissure, Smashing Ground, Fissure, Bottomless Trap Hole, etc. This deck relies heavily on those continuous spell/trap cards, thus makes S/T negation cards essential for this deck. Good negation cards are Solemn Judgment, Dark Bribe, or to lesser extent, Magic Jammer. A good thing too add is the combo of Macro Cosmos/D.Fissure and Grave Keeper Servant. The combo will be that its make a lock down causing your opponent can't attack. Note: Don't use Cyber Valley because Skill Drain will negate the 2nd effect, if there's no Skill Drain on the field you can tribute Survivor or Scout Plane to activate the 2nd effect so you can draw 2 card and Survivor or Scout Plane will be back on the field at the end of your turn. Category:Deck Type Category:Deck Type